The Travel and Landscape Photography of Brendan Ziolo

As you enter Yosemite Valley from the south driving up Route 41, you go through a tunnel and what greets you on the other side is this breathtaking view of Yosemite Valley. This is an extemely popular viewpoint and one where millions and probably billions of photos have been taken. Here are some of the many I took.

Tunnel View, as it's known, looks east into
Yosemite Valley and shows some of the more well-known attractions in
Yosemite, including Bridalveil Falls (photo above), El
Capitan (left in the photo below), and Half Dome (in the distance on the right of the photo below).

These photos were taken on my first visit to Yosemite during which time I also took a photo course offered by the Ansel Adams Gallery. The course gave me an opportunity to see all the highlights of Yosemite and many lesser know spots as well and take photos for an entire day. It was exhausting but in a really great way and something I'd like to do again. I'll upload more from this shoot in subsequent posts.

I had always heard that the Sedona area was amazing and the red rocks quite
unique so when we had the opportunity for a quick detour to Sedona we took it. When we arrived in Sedona, after a long drive, it was night time so we had no idea until the next day what beautiful sights await us. The view from our hotel room, the next morning, did not disappoint as we could see the red rocks from our room and I couldn't wait to get my camera out to take some shots, like those seen here.

The picturesque city of Sedona is surrounded by these red-rock monoliths with names such as Coffeepot and Cathedral. Shaped over millions of years, the red rocks were formed by a layer of red to orange-colored sandstone
known as the Schnebly Hill Formation, which is found only in the Sedona vicinity. The rocks are red because of iron oxide from a post-glacial age ocean that filled the area.

Unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of time to spend in Sedona but there is no doubt we'll go back. The area is calm and relaxing in part because the views are so breathtaking. I'm certain hundreds of amazing photo opportunities await our next trip.

On April 19, 1995, at 9:02 a.m., a massive truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma. The attack killed 168 people (including 19 children) and injured hundreds more. At the time, it was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil. A truly inspirational memorial was established on October 9, 1997, at the site of the
Federal Building to honor the victims, survivors, rescuers, and all who were changed by the
Oklahoma City bombing.

Rich in symbolism, the Oklahoma City National Memorial is built upon the now-sacred soil where the attack took place. The
monumental twin gates, pictured here, frame the moment of destruction – 9:02 a.m. The outside of each gate bears this inscription:

We come here to rememberThose who were killed, those who
survived and those changed forever.May all who leave here know
the impact of violence.May this memorial offer comfort,
strength, peace, hope and serenity.

When you enter through the gates, you see a field of empty chairs, pictured in the first image, on the footprint of the Murrah building. The 168 chairs represent the lives taken on April 19, 1995. They stand
in nine rows to represent each floor of the building, and each chair
bears the name of a person killed on that floor. Nineteen smaller chairs
stand for the children. The photo below shows the chairs in the Reflecting Pool, which occupies what was once N.W. Fifth Street.

While I was not directly affected by the Oklahoma City bombing, this Memorial is unbelievably moving and a heartfelt tribute to those affected by the attack. I can only hope these photos communicate some of what I was feeling that night. I wasn't able to spend a lot of time at the Memorial as this visit was part of a longer road trip. In fact, I barely made it in time to capture these shots but I hope to go back.

When you travel to Hawaii, you think sun, sand and relaxing days on the beach so the big question is why were we up so bloody early and packing fleeces on our first day. Well, the experience that lay ahead was well worth it...

We drove about an hour from our hotel before we hit the turn-off to Haleakala National Park. It's very dark outside and we start to wind our way up a very steep hill. I think it was probably a good thing that we didn't know how steep the hill or how winding the road before we started. We continued to climb until we were at around 10,000 feet and then we found a parking lot that was almost full so we pulled into one of the remaining spots. It was still pitch dark as we got out of the car and quickly felt the very cold wind so we decided to bundle up even more as we walked up some stairs towards a look out that was already filling with people. Thankfully, I found a spot near the front where I could setup my tripod and camera for the sunrise that the guidebooks promised to be spectacular.

While these photos may not do it justice, the sunrise over Haleakala was amazing. The light started soft as the sun rose above the clouds and then continued to grow across the sky. The way it backlit the clouds was spectacular and resulted in the shot that was the first banner image for ziolophoto.com. The sky continued to change by the second and I fired away taking shot after shot, hoping that I wouldn't run out of memory card space and that my batteries would be OK as it was still really cold.

After the sun had risen completely, we headed back down to the car, a bit light-headed from the thin air. We drove back down the volcano finally realizing how steep the grade and also how there was not a lot of space beside the road if you missed one of the sharp turns. We also had to look out for cyclists riding down the mountain as that's a tour for people who are more adventurous. We stopped for breakfast at this little restaurant at the bottom and enjoyed some great food and coffee.

When we got back to the hotel, we headed for the beach... finally. This was the Hawaii we had imagined but the trip up Haleakala gave us a new perspective and some great photos, now posted above, to take back. Definitely something you have to do on your next trip to Maui.

One of the reasons, I chose this blog design for ziolophoto.com is that you can easily update the image used for the banner. I plan to do this on a regular basis but not as often as I post new photos.

The first banner image is of the sunrise over the Haleakala crater in Maui, Hawaii. The full image is above and as you can see I've cropped it for the banner to focus on the light streaming through the wisp of clouds.

Seeing a sunrise, above the clouds, over a dormant volcano is a definite must on any trip to Hawaii and worth getting up extremely early to check out. I'll post a few more photos from this shoot in the next post on ziolophoto.com.

Photography has been a passion of mine for as long as I can
remember. From my first Disc camera to borrowing my Dad's Miranda SLR and then to my very own Pentax SLR and a Mamiya 645. Today, I'm shooting with Nikon digital SLRs and a collection of lenses. But while the equipment has changed the pursuit of that unique and memorable image continues.

For a few years, I shot weddings and portraits professionally but not anymore as my marketing career got busier and I've moved a couple of times to pursue it further. While these moves make it difficult to practice wedding and portrait photography, it has made it easier to travel to new places and take my camera with me to document the journeys.

For many year, I've been asked by family and friends to see some of the photos I've taken but, even though I have better intentions, the slides seem to end up in binder or the digital files are in folders on my computer. Well, I'm many years late but I've finally got a way to share these images for all to see.

ziolophoto.com is my photoblog that will feature my travel and landscape photographs as that is the majority of what I take now and the genre I most enjoy. I’ll post some of my favorite photographs and the stories behind them on a weekly basis or so. Subscribe to the ziolophoto.com blog feed to find out when
new photos are
posted.